The Stingiest Man in San Francisco
by Daniel Fielder
Summary: On Christmas Eve, Jean-Luc Picard, a stingy Metropolitan, is visited by spirits to convince him to change his ways before it's too late.
1. Jean-Luc Picard

Smallville with Rankin Bass. Merry Christmas! … In June…

Disclaimer: Star Trek belongs to Paramount and Gene Roddenberry while the Stingiest Man in Town belongs to Rankin-Bass. I own nothing.

* * *

 **The Stingiest Man in San Francisco**

Prologue: Jean-Luc Picard

 _Holly-ho!_

 _Holly ho-ho-ho!_

 _Holly ho! Tally ho!_

 _Sing a Christmas Carol written long ago._

Data was hanging out in the Picard house when we walked up.

" _Written long ago._ " Data repeated when he noticed us. "The merriest of Merry Christmases to you."

"Who are you?" I asked?

"Who am I?" Data exclaimed. "Data. Welcome to the home of the kindest and most generous man in the Federation, Jean-Luc Picard." Data continued.

"What?" My friend Rob asked in shock.

"You are surprised I call Picard kind and generous." Data observed. "Well, you can take my word for it. True, Mr. Picard was not always so jolly. There was a time when he was as mean and miserable as the counting house in which he conducted his business. The offices of Picard and Dukat. Now Dukat was dead to begin with, but old Picard never paid to have Strange's name crossed out.

 _There was a mean and stingy man_

 _Named Jean-Luc Picard._

 _His heart was hard and cold_

 _Because he was the devil's card._

 _While he set down to count the gold_

 _That is mind could never leave._

 _Young people in the square outside…_

"Merry Christmas!" Several children called out, disrupting Picard's train of thought.

 _Celebrated Christmas Eve._

"Away!" Picard shouted, brandishing an umbrella. "Away with you and your 'Merry Christmas'!"

The children scattered upon seeing Picard.

"Christmas." Picard scoffed as he sat back down. "Bah humbug. Humbug!"

"That used to be his favorite word." Data explained to us. "My father was the housekeeper for Picard before he passed on, so he had me stay and do my father's old work load. Oh, Picard was a tight-fisted man. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner. Until that Christmas Eve, not too long ago, when the ghosts came. My new friends, allow me to tell you a Ghost Story for Christmas. _**The Stingiest Man in San Francisco**_."

* * *

And you'll hear it too, in a few days, hopefully. So keep an eye out.


	2. Merry Christmas Uncle Jean-Luc

Chapter 1: Merry Christmas Uncle Jean-Luc

It was Christmas Eve, about two years back, and the people in the streets of San Francisco were singing.

 _An old fashioned Christmas,_

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like,_

 _A pretty Christmas Card._

Inside, Data, the personal aid of Jean-Luc Picard, was talking with Picard's clerk, William Riker, while the music was going on.

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _And candlelight shining down,_

 _On friends surrounding me._

Data did a little dance as Riker smiled when Picard burst in. Riker was a tall well-built man with a brown beard that matched his hair with blue eyes.

"Riker!" Picard called out as the black haired aid stopped, and Riker stood at attention. "A pretty way to be wasting my time. 'An old fashioned Christmas.' You'll be an old fashioned pauper if you don't attend to your work."

"You wouldn't discharge me, sir." Riker said nervously. "Not on Christmas Eve."

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Picard asked when a lump of coal fell out of Riker's jacket pocket. "What's this? Stealing my coal, are we?"

"For the stove, sir." Riker said meekly. "It's so damp and chilly in here."

Riker had to sneak the coal in lump by lump when Picard's back was turned; luckily, he was never severely punished for it, especially since the office was actually a little refreshing in the summers.

"Next thing, you'll be picking my pockets." Picard said with a sneer.

"Oh look, sir." Riker said as he saw a figure in a white shirt and green jacket pass the window. "Your nephew Jim is coming to pay you a visit."

"What's that fool want?" Picard asked just as Jim popped in.

"I like him, sir." Riker said. "His smile warms my heart."

Jim was a young man with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes like his mother.

" _Merry Christmas, Uncle Jean-Luc!_ " Jim called out.

" _Humbug!_ " Picard called back dismissively.

" _Oh, be merry, Uncle Jean-Luc._ " Jim persisted.

"Ha-ha-ha." Picard said in a lackluster way.

 _What's so merry on Christmas Day?_

 _The merry money you throw away?_

 _The merry bills you have to pay?_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say bah!_

Riker shrugged at Data, neither of them really knew why Picard was so cold and unfeeling.

" _Here's a present, Uncle Jean-Luc._ " Jim said as he handed a box to Picard.

" _Humbug!_ " Picard called out as he opened the present to reveal, as he suspected, a tie.

 _I think you are a fool to waste your cash._

 _What's the present you always buy?_

 _A handkerchief or an awful tie._

 _Look at this tie, and you'll know why,_

 _When I get Christmas presents,_

 _I say trash!_

Merlyn tossed the tie away as it ended up wrapped around Riker's neck.

"It is you." Data said encouragingly.

" _But everything at Christmas is so jolly and lively._ " Jim continued. " _The Christmas trees and wreaths of holly._ "

" _Poison ivy._ " Picard scoffed.

" _The girls and boys who dream about St. Nicholas._ " Jim went on.

" _St. Nicholas?_ " Picard asked. " _Ridiculous._ "

" _Don't you like him, Uncle Jean-Luc?_ " Jim asked.

" _Humbug!_ " Picard called out.

' _Good old, Nicholas.'_

 _That's a lot of slosh!_

 _I abominate old St. Nick._

 _His reckless spending makes me sick._

 _I think St. Nick's a lunatic._

 _When you say 'Old St. Nicholas',_

 _I say bosh!_

"Oh, don't be so cross, Uncle." Jim insisted. "Come, dine with us tomorrow."

"Christmas dinner?" Picard scoffed. "What a revolting, repugnant institution."

" _Oh don't you like a juicy Christmas turkey?_ " Jim asked.

" _Detest it._ " Picard argued.

" _Plum pudding with a brandy sauce?_ " Jim went on.

" _Can't digest it._ " Picard said airily.

" _You'll get a mellow feeling for humanity._ " Jim went on.

"' _Humanity?' Insanity!_ " Picard called out again.

At this, Riker could only sigh along with Data at Picard's lack of compassion.

" _You'll enjoy it, Uncle Jean-Luc._ " Jim assured him.

" _Humbug!_ " Picard said once more.

 _It may be fun for you, but not for me._

 _I'm not happy on Christmas Day._

 _I'm never cheerful. I'm never gay._

 _If you think I could feel that way,_

 _Then you are just as stupid as can be._

Picard then backed Jim back to the door.

 _If you think I'd be merry,_

 _And chirp like a canary,_

 _Then you are even dumber than a dumb bug!_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say fiddlesticks! Poppycock!_

 _And just plain humbug! Humbug!_

 _Humbug, humbug, HUMBUG!_

"I pity you, Uncle." Jim said calmly. "Maybe I'll never be as rich as you, but I'll go to my grave still believing in a merry Christmas."

"Good afternoon." Picard said as he opened the door for Jim.

"A wonderful Christmas!" Jim went on.

"Good afternoon!" Picard said a bit more forcefully.

"A magnificent Christmas!" Jim finished.

"GOOD AFTERNOON!" Picard shouted as he kicked Jim out of the house.

()()()()()

Jim picked himself up, brushed himself down and began walking, joining the carolers in song.

 _An old fashioned Christmas._

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like_

 _A pretty Christmas card._

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _With candlelight dancing down_

 _On friends surrounding me._

* * *

Man, that kid is a rock!


	3. The Chains

Chapter 2: The Chains

As the clock chimed five, the end of the work day, Riker finished up and nervously went to Picard.

"You'll want all day off tomorrow, I suppose." Picard groaned.

"If it's convenient sir." Riker said. "After all, it is Christmas Eve."

"It's not convenient." Picard muttered. "And it's not fair. I have you pay you a day's wages for nothing. All this holiday garbage will have me in the poor house."

"Do not fall for it, Will." Data muttered. Picard was a sly old business man.

"Well sir." Riker said. "If things are so bad for you, you don't have to pay me for the whole day."

"First sensible thing you've said all day, Riker." Picard said. "I'll pay you half a day, and no more."

"Alright." Riker said.

He and Picard walked out as Data reluctantly followed Picard. Data was furious at him.

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!_

Picard sighed as he checked his cash box for the day, full as expected.

"Uh, you're lucky you're dead as a doornail, Dukat." Picard sighed. "And not bothered with Christmas. I'm lucky too. I don't have to share the profits with you, anymore."

 _Old Picard's such a stingy man._

 _The tightest man since time began._

 _Oh he's so tight, so tight I say,_

 _He wouldn't give a bride away._

 _It hurts him so to pay one cent._

 _He wouldn't pay a compliment._

 _He uses lightning bugs at night_

 _To save the cash he pays for light._

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!_

 _And when his Hurst goes rolling by,_

 _No man alive is gonna cry._

 _But you can bet his ghost will curse,_

 _Because he's paying for the Hurst._

 _And when it's time for him to go,_

 _His soul will travel down below._

 _And when he gets there, you can tell_

 _Because you'll hear old Satan yell,_

" _How can anybody be so stingy?!_

 _So stingy?! So stingy?!_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!"_

Picard went to an old house that used to belong to Dukat, having been left to Picard in his will. There was something strange about that night. The mist was so dark that it seemed like death sat in meditation. Picard went to the doorknob when suddenly it became the face of Dukat! There was no mistake. He had the same slim Cardassian face with penetrating eyes.

"Dukat?" Picard gasped. "Skrain Dukat? But you've been dead for seven years! Oh, why have you come back to haunt me?!"

The doorknob returned to normal, and Picard sighed.

"Just my imagination." Picard sighed. "Bah humbug. I better get to bed."

Picard walked in as Data followed. His father had been Dukat's aid, and Picard inherited their use with the house.

"It did not seem like a humbug to me." Data said as he passed the door nervously.

After the commotion, Lex went straight to bed, however…

That night when old Jean-Luc Picard

Lay dreaming in his room,

He heard the sound of rattling chains

Come clanking through the gloom.

And while he lay there shivering

In the icy grip of fear,

The ghost of Picard's partner,

Old Skrain Dukat did appear…

Dukat looked the same, but he was covered in chains and cash boxes.

"Jean-Luc Picard…" Dukat said moaning as if in pain or misery. "In life I was your partner, Dukat."

"Bah!" Picard said. "You're just an hallucination!"

"See me." Dukat said as calm as the sea. "Why do you doubt your senses?"

Dukat removed his face roared at him. Shocking Picard as Dukat refixed his face back on as easy and normally as talking on the phone.

"What do you want with me?" Picard asked nervously.

"Much." Dukat explained. "Look at me. Condemned to walk the Alpha Quadrant in death because I wasted my life."

"Wasted?" Picard asked. "How Dukat?"

"I helped myself to money." Dukat said with a weep. "Instead of helping my neighbor, and so I wear this chain of greed and heartlessness I forged in life."

 _I wear a chain. A heavy chain_

 _Is bound around my soul._

 _A chain of sin and vices_

 _That I could not control._

 _Repent your crimes. Repent in time._

 _Or you'll repent in vain._

 _For if you wait until too late,_

 _You'll never break your chains._

 _Although my chain is very long,_

 _The one you wear is longer._

 _My chain of wrong is very strong,_

 _But yours is even stronger._

 _You must escape! Escape my fate!_

 _Cast of the sins that bind you,_

 _Or you will find when you pass on,_

 _You'll drag your chain behind you!_

"But it's not right for you to be so condemned!" Picard said, applying this to himself as well. "You were only doing business in life as I do now. And business is business."

"Mankind should have been my business." Dukat said. "You still have time to repent. Reform!"

"How?" Dukat asked.

"Tonight, you will be haunted by three spirits." Dukat said.

"I'd rather not." Picard said quaking for the first time in many, many years.

"Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread." Dukat retorted. "Expect the first tonight when the bell tolls one."

Dukat then walked to the window and opened it as Picard saw several people with chains like Dukat's, some were shorter, some were longer, but all looked extremely heavy to carry.

"See the phantoms that fill the night air." Dukat elaborated. "Each with chains. None free, and I must go with them."

Dukat floated down to the others and turned to Picard.

"Observe and know our misery, Jean-Luc." Dukat went on. "Now we seek to do good in human matters but have lost the power forever. Repent! Repent…!"

"No!" Picard said more out of fear of the sight than refusing to repent. "NO!"

Picard shut the window as Data rushed to see the sight, having seen Dukat with Picard.

"They are gone…" Data said with a shiver.

* * *

Oh my… That must suck for Dukat.


	4. Little Winona

Chapter 3: Little Winona

After the shock of seeing Dukat's ghost, Picard went to sleep, and Picard was suddenly awoken when the bell of the grandfather clock down in his study stroke one.

As Picard got up, he was aware of a bright light and pulled back the curtains to reveal a figure, she was a Vulcan woman with brown eyes and dressed in white robes.

"Who are you?" Picard asked.

"I am the ghost of Christmas Past." The woman said.

"Long past?" Picard asked.

"No." The woman said. "Your past. You can call me T'Pol for simplicity's sake. Now take my hand."

Picard hesitantly took it, and all of a sudden, they were flying over the city before arriving at a smaller suburb.

"I don't know where we're going." Picard thought aloud. "But everything looks strangely familiar."

"Look upon yourself when you were younger." T'Pol said as she led Picard to a school house where an eleven-year-old boy with the same brown hair he used to have and the same blue eyes as him was alone at a schoolhouse reading a book.

"Do you know this child?" T'Pol asked.

"Know him?" Picard said. "That's me."

"Mind if I ask why you are all alone in there?" T'Pol asked.

"I wasn't wanted at home, so I just took to staying over at the old boarding school full time." Picard explained. "Give myself a chance to… To catch up on my reading."

There was a knock at the door as young Jean-Luc finished reading, and he opened it to reveal a blonde girl with blue eyes.

"Oh Jean-Luc, Jean-Luc!" Winona squealed in French, as the two had lived there for a good chunk of their lives. "Mother and I just talked to Father, and he said you can come back! We can be together all Christmas long!"

"Really?" Jean-Luc asked.

"Yes!" Winona insisted. "We're going to have the merriest Christmas ever, and be together always!"

"Right." Jean-Luc said with a smile as he walked off with his sister.

"Always a delicate girl who a breath might have withered." T'Pol stated. "But she had a big heart."

"Yes." Picard said as he began choking up. "She did."

"She died a woman and had children, correct?" T'Pol asked.

"One child." Picard sighed.

"True." T'Pol went on. "Your nephew Jim."

"And when Winona died, I swore I'd never love anything again."

"But you did love again." T'Pol said. "Come…"

T'Pol took Picard's hand, and in an instant, they were off again.

* * *

I had to add this. I couldn't resist.


	5. It Might Have Been

Chapter 5: It Might Have Been

Almost an instant after watching his younger self leave with Winona, Picard found himself outside a building he hadn't seen in years.

"Why, this is where my first job was." Picard gaped. "Yes, old Pike's offices. It sounds like one of his Christmas parties are going on!"

Picard looked in excitedly, acting surprisingly more like he used to rather than how he acted in the present. Picard looked in and saw himself not all that different from his present self, if a bit more joyful, dancing with a slender woman with ginger hair and green eyes.

"That's me, and my fiancé, Beverly!" Picard called out. "I remember it like it was yesterday. After the dance, we went out into the snow to cool ourselves. Oh, what were we whispering on that long ago day?"

"But you can't be serious, Beverly." The younger Picard said plainly.

"There's no reason we can't get married now." Beverly said plainly. "Don't you love me, Jean-Luc?"

"More than the world." Jean-Luc assured Beverly. "But I would rather wait until I was more secure, financially."

"No, you young fool!" Picard snapped at his former self.

"Don't say that, dear." Beverly said to the past Picard. "You frighten me."

"I only want what's best for you." Jean-Luc went on.

"That's what I want too." Beverly added. "A tiny cottage."

"A cottage?" Jean-Luc asked.

" _I want a gilded cottage._ " Beverly explained.

"We can't afford it yet." Jean-Luc explained. " _But when I've made my fortune, what mansions we will get._ "

" _I only want a little cottage with children playing on the floor._ " Beverly explained calmly.

" _But darling love flies out the window when poverty comes through the door._ " Jean-Luc insisted.

 _I think of you, and my future gleams._

 _And my mind is filled with golden dreams._

 _I think of you, and I love you so._

 _All the world takes on a golden glow._

 _So hold me close, tonight._

 _And fill me with dreams of delight._

 _I think of you and your love for me._

 _And I know that life with you will be_

 _More beautiful than it seems_

 _In my golden … Dreams . . ._

As the two embraced and kissed each other, Picard could feel tears on his face.

"I…" Picard said, trying to hold back the tears. "I shouldn't have remembered."

"There is another Christmas." T'Pol said, and in that instant, they were just outside Picard and Dukat's old business. "You'd just formed your partnership with Dukat. Your business was new, but your ways were set."

"Oh please." Picard gasped. "Spare me the rest."

"You must drain the cup to the dregs." T'Pol insisted. "Recall how you drove love from your heart and replaced it with the worship of money."

"No!" Picard gasped.

"Yes!" Beverly snapped at the younger Picard, both having obviously been through much darker times since the party. "Another idol has replaced me!"

"Oh really?" Jean-Luc asked dismissively. "That's going a bit far, don't you think?"

Jean-Luc then sat down and went over his books as this was a while before Riker became his clerk.

"Hm." Jean-Luc groaned. "McCoy is six months in default. Do you realize how much money I stand to lose?"

"But Jean-Luc, it is Christmas." Beverly insisted, closing the book.

"Christmas?!" Jean-Luc said as he shot up in anger, not for the first or last time. "Christmas is a folly, a sham, a waste of time! It's a… A humbug! Yes, yes. Christmas is a humbug."

Beverly gasped and turned away.

"I… I wish to break off our engagement, Jean-Luc." Beverly said.

"You can't be serious." Jean-Luc said in honest shock. "Why?"

"You've become someone I don't know." Beverly said. "Someone I don't wish to know."

You've lost the beautiful tomorrow.

You really had a chance to win.

Our love has turned into a shadow

Of happiness that might have been.

"Oh phooey." Jean-Luc said as he turned his back to her, mistakenly thinking she was just hysterical.

 _It might have been_

 _A warm and wonderful romance._

 _It might have been_

 _If you had given it a chance._

 _You had the ticket to enchanted lands._

 _Why did you let it slip right through your hands?_

Unable to bare it, Beverly rushed out of the building, Jean-Luc moved to follow, but he couldn't bring himself to do it and simply went back to his books.

 _I might have known_

 _A life of happiness with you,_

 _But love has flown._

 _The wrong I've done, I can't undo._

 _And now too late, my bitter tears begin._

 _Because I know… It might… Have… Been. . ._

As Picard watched his former self let Beverly leave he turned to T'Pol.

"I can't bare it!" Picard called out. "HAUNT ME NO LONGER!"

Picard went to T'Pol, but all he gripped was his clock.

"Oh…" Picard sighed. "Thank heavens."

Picard went back to sleep as Data, having been in an adjoining room, came in just to see what was going on, when a loud laugh was heard, and Picard bolt up, and both looked down to a yellow light from the living room.

* * *

Uh-oh. Looks like the number two ghost is right on time.


	6. Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Chapter 5: Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Picard and Data slowly walked into the room as it was suddenly filled with grand decorations and a huge Christmas tree.

"My parlor!" Picard gaped. "What happened to my parlor?"

Picard looked around and saw a black man with a shaved head and a black goatee wearing robes of scarlet as he stood at the table.

"I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present." The man said. "You can call me, Benjamin. Now come and know me better for you have never known the likes of me before."

"What exactly are you?" Picard asked, unsure of just how this man in red robes represented Christmas.

"The Christmas Spirit." Benjamin said as he put his hand over some toys as Merlyn, in them, saw many childhood memories and hopes, though that might only have been a residual effect from his previous visitor.

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Twinkling lamps and girls and boys._

 _Mingle with the jingling of joys._

 _Words of hope and happy times,_

 _Sound to the music of chimes!_

 _Jumping jacks, and dancing dolls,_

 _Tumble to the jumble of bouncing balls._

 _See the Christmas Toy Ballet_

 _Dance to the bells of the sleigh!_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Click your heels. Point your toes._

 _Spin around and around and around,_

 _And away we go._

 _Clap your hands. Wink your eyes._

 _Jump so high, you can reach the sky!_

As the odd music seemed to be playing out of nowhere, Benjamin held his hand as the two were flung out the window as Benjamin met up with them.

"We're going to fall!" Picard called out.

"Touch the hem of my coat and be lifted." Benjamin said calmly as Picard did so, taking Data's hand as well.

"An interesting way to travel." Data said with his typical calm behavior. "But where are we going?"

"Will Riker's house." Benjamin replied.

As they arrived they looked in through the window, as before, invisible to all who saw them as Riker's wife Deanna was working with their daughter Natasha for dinner as her brother Barin arrived.

"Hey Deanna." Barin said. "I could smell that turkey all the way from church."

"But where's Will?" Deanna asked. "And Little Jason?"

At once, Riker walked in with a smile. On his shoulder was a boy who looked almost exactly like Riker but without a beard. He also had a crutch and his leg in a brace.

"Who wants to know?" Riker asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, you silly boys." Deanna said as Natasha helped Jason down.

"So, how'd Jason behave in church?" Deanna asked.

"As good as gold and better." Riker replied. "He told me walking home that he hoped the people saw him in church since it might be pleasant to remember on Christmas Day who made lame men walk and blind men see."

"Well, come on kids, time for dinner." Deanna said as they got the food set up, with an extremely small goose.

"Oh boy, what a great dinner!" Jason said excitedly.

"Indeed." Riker said. "I propose a toast to Mr. Picard."

Everyone groaned at this.

"Come on now." Jason said. "We mustn't think poorly of him."

"Why not?!" Natasha snapped. "It's his thinking that makes us so poor!"

"Now, now." Riker responded. "Mr. Picard is the founder of the feast."

"'Feast' indeed." Deanna scoffed. "With a goose no bigger than a canary for our boy."

"Oh, must I listen?" Picard asked. He'd never really seen things from Riker's view of the world, and now he had, he saw how pitiful it seemed.

"Well surely you know how Will lived." Benjamin replied.

"Instead of docking Riker half a day, why didn't I give him extra for Christmas?!" Picard said angrily to himself.

"Natasha," Jason said after dinner. "Did I show you the toy soldier Santa got me, last year?"

"A hundred times, Jason." Natasha said with a laugh.

"I'll show you again." Jason said cheerfully as he suddenly fell to the floor.

"He's falling!" Picard said. "I've got to help him!"

"You can't." Benjamin pointed out.

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Picard asked.

"It's perhaps too late." Benjamin responded.

Natasha helped Jason up and cradled him like the caring sister she was.

"Oh Jason, little buddy, are you alright?!" Natasha asked frantically as everyone else gathered around with the same look of worry on their face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jason said as he held up the soldier.

"See?" Jason said.

"Oh, what a brave soldier he is." Natasha said, talking more about Jason than the toy soldier which basically looked like a painted clothes pin.

"The kids at school say there isn't a Santa, and that this is just a clothes pin Dad painted because he couldn't afford to buy a real one." Jason said.

"What nonsense!" Natasha insisted.

"There is a Santa Claus, isn't there, Natasha?" Jason asked.

"Yes, Jason." Natasha said with assuredness.

 _There is a spirit in the world of generosity_

 _That brings good things to all of us wherever we may be._

 _So I believe in Santa Claus, for it can't be denied_

 _That he is generosity personified._

 _Yes there is a Santa Claus for children everywhere._

 _Though you may watch the chimney tops and never see him there._

 _People say his magic sleigh flies in the sky above,_

 _But you might find it anywhere you find unselfish love!_

 _Oh yes, he really does exist, and Santa Claus will live._

 _As long as hearts can realize how good it feels to give!_

 _So when you are feeling blue, keep up your hope because_

 _If there is kindness in this world, there is a Santa Claus!_

Jason nodded and joined into his sister's song.

" _Yes there is a Santa Claus…_ "

Jason and Natasha hugged as everyone smiled and went on enjoying themselves as Picard could only watch that brave little soldier with his leg in a brace.

* * *

Okay, this section and the next three were why I wanted to do this.


	7. Birthday Party of the King

Chapter 6: Birthday Party of the King

An instant after Natasha assured Jason there was a Santa Claus, Picard and Data were flying above San Francisco again, courtesy of Benjamin.

"Haven't you shown me enough already?" Picard asked more out of the guilt over what Winona would think of her big brother if she were alive today rather than the frustration he had shown to those children carolers the day before last.

"There is another place to visit." Benjamin explained. "Even though you refused the offer yesterday."

"Oh no!" Picard said as that guilt swelled even more. "Not my nephew Jim's dinner party!"

But it was too late. The quartet was right in the middle of a modest but well-kept home. Jim was there with his wife, a woman with blond hair and blue eyes.

"To Uncle Jean-Luc!" Jim called out just as Riker had done at his own home to the same lukewarm reception.

"That stingy man who shuns you every time you see him?" Carol asked.

"Have pity on him, Carol." Jim asked.

"Pity?" Carol asked. "For a man so rich? His entire business is solely to be making a profit."

"Profit, yes." Jim said. "But how do the profits profit him? He takes it into his head to dislike us and be gloomy in Dukat's old place. I plan on giving him the same invitation I give him every year until he finally accepts for I pity him."

"How can you have so much patience, Jim?" Carol asked, obviously ashamed of herself.

"Because my mother always spoke highly of him and no one my mother loved so much can be all bad." Jim said simply as everyone went back to the party, somehow even merrier than before.

Picard however, was weeping silently, especially as his sister's favorite song was playing in the background.

"Why this remorse?" Benjamin asked.

"Every year he gives me a gift." Picard said with a heavy sigh and a trembling voice. "And I toss it away. I never understood such things."

"But gifts have been a part of Christmas from the very beginning." Benjamin pointed out. "See that tiny stable under the tree? Perhaps your young companion can tell you."

Data, more out of instinct than anything else, began singing a song his father had taught him as Picard looked at an ornament depicting the nativity.

 _Christmas Trees are brightly lighted._

 _Through the world the church bells ring._

 _Great and small are all invited_

 _To the birthday party of the King._

 _Mighty prince and humble peasant._

 _Each will choose a gift to bring._

 _Do you have a birthday present_

 _For the birthday party of the King?_

 _Once wise men came in his honor_

 _Bringing incense, myrrh, and gold._

 _But what is gold to a ruler_

 _Who has all the stars to hold?!_

 _Do you know what gift will please him?_

 _Please him more than anything?!_

 _Bring a heart that really loves him_

 _To the birthday party… Of the King . . .!_

Picard smiled at the song as he felt his heart swell up at the familiar, but somehow new, story, but then his smile fell as he thought of the Riker house.

"But what about that other child?" Picard asked Benjamin. "So tiny he seems little more than a baby himself. What of Little Jason?"

"I see a vacant seat in the chimney corner." Benjamin said solemnly. "And a little clutch without an owner carefully preserved."

As Benjamin said this, Picard found himself in the Riker house to find the scene Benjamin described and a family in mourning as they left for the cemetery.

"Oh dear god, let it not be." Picard gasped as he collapses down at the crutch and wept for the boy his callousness would kill.

* * *

Next chapter, my favorite song in the whole film.


	8. One Little Boy

Chapter Seven: One Little Boy

"Little Jason gone?" Picard asked as he continued to weep. "This cannot be!"

"Why not?" Benjamin asked as he walked up behind Picard. "Who cares?"

One little boy is just a dot

In all the human race.

"What?" Picard asked, aghast as he thought of both Jason and his nephew Jim when he was little.

One little boy is just a spot

Upon a planet's face!

"No!" Picard shouted out, speaking unconsciously like his former rather than latter self.

And when he is no longer there,

A billion take the place

Of one… Little boy…

At this, Picard had to say something, and as he spoke, he unconsciously thought of the children he had known such as Winona and her own son, Jim.

But one little boy can sing a song

And have a world of fun.

One little boy can grow up strong

And leap and jump and run!

And you would want to see him grow

If he would be your son.

That one little boy.

Benjamin shook his head and continued.

If he passes on…

Utterly, he is gone…

There's one less in the nation…

Let him rest in peace…

And he will decrease…

The surplus population…

"No!" Picard called out in horror at his own callousness. "No!"

"That's what you thought not long ago!" Benjamin pointed out darkly as all Picard could do was bow his head in shame.

"That's what I thought, but now I know." Picard conceded as he picked up the painted clothespin Riker had made Jason for Christmas.

One little boy who cannot walk

Is not a broken toy.

One little boy can laugh and talk

And fill a home with joy.

And no one else can take the place

Of that one little boy.

For a moment, Picard could swear he saw Jason sitting in his seat as he walked up, only to find it empty as he dropped the toy soldier.

That one… Little boy.

At this, Picard one again collapsed at the chair and crutch and wept as Benjamin simply disappeared as he could barely perceive the room changing back into his parlor as Data came up and put a hand on Picard's shoulder for comfort, and he gratefully accepted it.

"What next?" Data groaned as they heard the stroke of midnight and all looked out to see a solitary, robotic figure.

* * *

Well, we're coming close to the end now. Also, this song was my favorite in the whole movie.


End file.
